Specials - Scott Westerfeld (2006)

This book is the third in the Uglies series and was a reread for me because of my english oral.

This book is a lot more action packed than previous books in the series and still has the excellent writing style and interesting characters of the previous books. The best part of this book was the reappearance of David, who was scarcely in Pretties and I had forgotten how much I liked him.


In this book Tally Youngblood is now a special special, a cutter, led by Shay and devoted to taking down the Smoke. Tally wants Zane to become a special, however Shay says that he needs to do something to prove he can be special so they decide to help him escape to the smoke so Dr Cable will make him special. To help him escape Tally and Shay steal a tool from the armoury and accidentally destroy it in the process. Zane escapes with a bunch of crims and Tally and Shay follow them, however Shay decides to go ahead leaving only Tally following the crims and Zane. When they arrive at the Smoke they learn that the smokies have joined with another city, Diego, which allows free thinking and has no specials and have already passed out hundreds of thousands of pills to many cities. Dr Cable then attacks Diego thinking it was them that destroyed the armoury and Zane dies in the process, Tally then returns to her city to tell Dr Cable the truth about the armoury, however before she leaves David gives her a cure for being special injection that she can take when she wants. Tally then talks to Dr Cable and learns that she knew it was Tally and Shay that destroyed the armoury and had spun it this way so no one would stop her attack on Diego, Tally then uses the cure on Dr Cable so she doesn't stop any of the progress and decisions that the cities make on their own. Tally is locked up downstairs and hears all the news that the cities are allowing free thinking, but are starting despecialization to make sure there are no superhuman specials left to hurt people, when Tally is taken for her operation Dr Cable helps her escape and tells her there needs to be at least one special left. Tally then escapes into the wild with David and tells people that they are the new special circumstances and will protect the land and forests when people start to destroy the land.